kim lawton reports. ♪ i can only imagine ♪ what i will do >>> for millennia, people have being tryingimagine what happens after death. is there a heaven? who gets in? and what happens to those who don't? >> everybody dies. we want to hope that the people we love we'll see again, and we want to hope that our own identities and our own consciousness and maybe even our own bodies exist in some other realm after we're gone from this earth. >> books trying to provide answers to these age-old questions continue to be bestsellers. one of them "love wins" by michigan mega church pastor rob bell has ignited an intense new debate, particularlymong evangelical christians. >> a lot of people, the conception they we handed of thchriian ith that you go around making judgments, so-and-so we know for sure is burning forever in that place. you don't know that. that's speculation. >> if you reject the kingdom of god, it doesn't really look all that good for you. >> according to the pew forum on religion and public life, an overwhelming majority of americans believe in life after death. 74% believe in h

there's also much more on our website, including more of kim lawton's interviews about christians in holy land. you can comment on all of our stories and share them. audio and video podcasts are also available. join us at pbs.org. >>> as we leave you, me of the song "ramadan is here" by the group native deen. ♪ ♪ ramadan is here ♪ ramadan is here ♪ it is here ♪ ramadan is here ♪ it is time to fast ♪ it is time for ramadan ♪ get up, get up, get up ♪ come on, come on, move >>ñ major funding for "religion & ethics newsweekly" is provided by the lily endowment, an indianapolis-based private family foundation dedicated to its founders' interest in religion, community development, and education. additional funding by mutual of america, designing customized individual and group retirement products. that's why we're your retirement company. and the corporation for public company. and the corporation for public broadcasting. no. well, it's just past there. first house in the right after the cottage on the l don't panic. brazen it out. me? - no. - right. here goes. yippee!

. >>> more on this with our managing editor, kim lawton. kim?> bob, the religious community continues to be very involved in this debate, bringing some of that moral passion and they are lobbying on both sides, all sides of this issue. this week, we had 24 religious and charitable organizations writing a letter to the administration and congressional leaders saying in all of your debt ceiling discussions, don't forgot about the poor, the vulnerable, the least of these, what they called them. and, on the other side, you had religious conservatives lobbying congress, saying don't accept any debt ceiling solution that doesn't include dramatic spending cuts. and they also used moral language, saying it's wrong to leave debt to our children, using a biblical passage to support that. so, again, energy on all sides on this moral question. >> that's right. and morally and ideologically, it spills over into the whole idea of a smaller government, which of course is what the conservatives want very much. >> and that's a big issue on the campaign trail, to